ARTICLES ABOUT AMARO BY DATE - PAGE 5

IN MY SMALL OPINION . . . Timing can be everything, and, frankly, this is a bad time for Phillies president David Montgomery to have given general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. another public vote of confidence. Obviously, what Montgomery thinks behind closed doors will differ from what he says publicly about the team's future, but it was irresponsible for Montgomery to have told a group of fans the other day that "[Amaro] is not on the hot seat. " When your major league club is 15 games under .500 with the third-highest payroll in baseball and your minor league system is devoid of promising prospects, no one can be off the "hot seat" - especially not the person overseeing the entire organization.

SAN FRANCISCO - Ruben Amaro Jr. asked a small group of reporters to follow him. He found a spot in the empty stands, hours before another Phillies game, and talked for 30 minutes about the missteps that led to another failure. "Listen, I'm the GM of the club, so I fully expect to take heat for it," Amaro said. "I'm the one who is making the decisions on player personnel. I'm accountable for the things that have happened. I have not had a very good year; our team did not have a very good year.

IN PHILADELPHIA this past week, sports fans were hoping that Ruben Amaro was going to make one or more trades in an attempt to restock the Phillies' farm system with young players who have "Big League" potential. When Ruben failed to do so, all across the Internet and the sports radio airwaves, a tidal wave of criticism and scorn from angry Philly sports fans ensued. Ruben exacerbated his problem and further sparked the fans' ire by making a seemingly nonsensical comment about this failure when he said, "Not disappointed, more surprised that there wasn't more aggressive action from the other end. " In fact, July 31, 2014, the day of the major league baseball trading deadline, was one of the most explosively active trade deadline days in recent years.

THE MOST OMINOUS aspect of Ruben Amaro Jr.'s inaction at the trade deadline wasn't his failure to add young talent capable of helping the Phillies compete within the next couple of years. Rather, it was his apparent belief that he had a legitimate chance of doing so, which suggests the sixth-year general manager still does not fully grasp the amount of reconstruction that will be required to turn the Phillies roster into something that doesn't make fans want to spew the folks in front of them with partially digested Schmitter.

WASHINGTON - Shortly after nothing happened, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. promised something was going to happen. "I don't see a scenario right now where our roster is going to be the same roster in April that it is right now," Amaro said Thursday after baseball's non-waiver trade deadline expired without the Phillies making a single move. "It will change. It will need to change because we need to get better. " There are not many things you could get Phillies fans to agree with Amaro about during these dark days, but the idea that his last-place ball club needs to make changes is definitely one they'd be on board with.

WASHINGTON - The four TVs in the visitors clubhouse at Nationals Park were black minutes before Thursday's trade deadline, to muffle the last rumors. Marlon Byrd retreated to a small room to digest video. A.J. Burnett and Jonathan Papelbon commandeered a table in an adjacent cafeteria to watch MLB Network as blockbuster deals without Phillies manifested. This marked one of the busiest deadlines in baseball history; 37 players moved in 12 trades. When 4 p.m. passed without a Phillies transaction, it was not an indictment of Ruben Amaro Jr's inability to trade.

NEW YORK - Just before ducking into the visiting radio booth yesterday morning - a half-hour before the matinee with the Mets and about 29 hours before today's trade deadline - Ruben Amaro Jr. spotted a couple of reporters. The Phillies general manager playfully raised his eyebrows and rubbed his hands together, as if he was hatching a secret plan. The details of that (imaginary?) plan is the great mystery, of course, as Amaro declined comment twice before his team wrapped up a three-game series at Citi Field.

THE GENERAL manager who has failed to produce a winning season since 2011 insisted he has a realistic sense of the market value of the players. It is the general managers who are actually in contention for the playoffs whose valuations are misguided. This is the world according to Ruben Amaro Jr., a place where fundamental economic principles do not apply. The real world? That's a different place. In the real world, market value is whatever the market says it is. And the market doesn't give a damn what you think about its judgments.

AND ON the third day, Ryan Howard rested. Again. After Howard was held out of the Phillies lineup in each of the two previous games against the San Francisco Giants, manager Ryne Sandberg kept the former MVP in the dugout again last night against lefthander Wade Miley and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Howard appeared to be a little more than unhappy on Thursday afternoon. But yesterday, he was a bit more upbeat as he walked out of the clubhouse before batting practice. The length of his stay out of the lineup is unknown, as Sandberg continues to say he writes out his lineup "on a day-to-day" basis.

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. strongly refuted reports Friday that suggested the team may buy out the contract of slumping first baseman Ryan Howard now or at the end of the season. After this year, the Phillies will owe Howard $60 million, which includes $25 million for both 2015 and 2016. There is a club option in 2017 with a $10 million buyout. "All I can tell you is that's not in our best interest," Amaro said before Friday's game at Citizens Bank Park against the Arizona Diamondbacks.